


jay/kay ship manifesto

by merrymelody



Category: Men in Black (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 21:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17454269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merrymelody/pseuds/merrymelody
Summary: meta covering all three movies.





	jay/kay ship manifesto

**K: Grumpy Guy’s story comes into focus.**

K, or Kay, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is the old hand to Will Smith/J/Jay’s young gun. Kay is your basic ‘bark’s worse than his bite’ – he’s loyal, kind and devoted. His life is defined by regret – in the first film, it’s revealed he joined the Men in Black, a government agency to conceal the existence of aliens from humanity, but this led him to sacrifice a personal life, and Elizabeth, the woman he was engaged to marry.

It’s a running joke in the first film that Kay ‘seems tense’, and it ends with him revealing to Jay that rather than training a partner, he was in fact training a replacement, and that like his previous partner, D, he wishes to enjoy whatever time he has left. Jay neutralises him, leaving him to pursue Elizabeth, and the end reveals they are married and that both believe Kay was in a coma for the last 30 years. 

The second film (and arguably the low point of the series) undercuts this by revealing that Kay had a daughter, Laura, due to his relationship with an alien princess, Lauranna. 

It’s hinted that Jay and Laura will form a relationship, however, this is not to be as she exits to her home planet. 

The relationships in this film are particularly underwritten (K and Laura interact twice onscreen, and Laura’s characterisation and past are dealt with minimally), however J’s motivation (he feels comfortable and familiar with her right away, which is implied as being due to her similarities with her father; and he longs for closeness after lacking a partner in MiB.) and K’s (he believes getting too personal endangers others, recalling Lauranna’s untimely death) are in keeping with their previously established characterisation. 

The third film has two versions of Kay, the younger version from 1969 (Josh Brolin) and Tommy Lee Jones as the present version. Present!Kay is particularly insistent, despite his and Jay’s now well-established bond, on hiding his emotions, retreating into officialdom, deflection and denial when pressed. This turns out to be due to his knowledge of what’s to come (his own imminent erasure from time) as well as of the past (including his presence during Jay’s father’s death.) Jay throughout the film comes to recognise Kay’s softer side, and how his actions were motivated by the desire to protect his partner, and the Kay we finish the film with is visibly more content.

It’s also hinted that Kay may have had an interest in O (played by Alice Eve in 1969 and Emma Thompson in 2012), however, Emma Thompson and Tommy Lee Jones have little onscreen interaction, and it’s implied that for unknown reasons, they’re not to be. 

**J: This is a very confusing time in my life.**

Jay, or as he was formerly known, James Darrell Edwards III, was an NYPD officer until he joined the MiB. Jay has a tendency to run-off at the mouth. However, despite their buddy-cop bickering, Jay’s competence, tenacity, and compassion bring a fresh perspective which aids Kay’s more traditional approach. The film ends with Jay replacing Kay, and a mortuary worker, Laurel Weaver, joining him as his new partner.

In the second film, however, it’s revealed that Jay is unable to maintain a partnership for long, and is lonely post-K’s departure. His emotional involvement in his work led him to try and protect others from joining said work, as the sacrifices MiB demand of their agents mean isolation from normal society. He enjoys a brief flirtation with Kay’s daughter, Laura, but nothing comes of it. However, his loneliness is alleviated by the return of Kay to the role of partner.

In the third film, Jay seems generally happier. He has no love interest, lampshaded by the quote for the next section, but he’s emotionally literate and open. However, the secrets Kay keeps provoke his curiosity, as well as hurting his feelings. Jay’s focus is usually the smaller picture (represented by the endings of all three films, which usually show Earth as a miniscule part of the wider universe), and his motivation throughout the film is not the threat to the planet posed by the film’s villain, Boris the Animal, but preserving Kay’s life.   
Jay reveals that prior to joining MiB, his father wasn’t there for him (it’s presumed his mother passed away at some point between 1969 and 1997), and that he’s beginning to feel his age. 

**Jay/Kay: ‘You got a girl in the future, slick?’ ‘I got you.’**

The working partnership is a classic slash trope, and while the fandom for MiB is small, the films are surprisingly reliant on the emotional bond formed between Agents Jay and Kay.

In the first film, we see the similarities between the two, despite their disparate approaches. (‘He’s got a real problem with authority.’ KAY: ‘So do I.’) and they form a swift bond. This is echoed in the script directions ( _’He hesitates for the briefest of moments -- as if this particular neuralyzation is different than all the others.’…He reaches up and gently pushes Edwards' jaw up, closing his mouth. KAY For future reference, this is a better look for you._

Kay begins to be influenced by Jay (‘…make it a happy memory’), and despite his dour exterior, enjoys spending time with the younger male socially. While persuading him to attend the interview for MiB, he takes Jay to a restaurant and they spend the night drinking as Kay tells Jay jokes. After Jay requests that he doesn’t want patronising nicknames such as ‘son’ or ‘kid’, Kay takes great delight in calling him several, including ‘slick’, ‘tiger’ and ‘slugger’. Kay also enjoys reversing the accusation he often receives himself of being ‘tense’, driving a flying car upside down while reminding a terrified Jay ‘…(I) think I lack self-control. You’re much too tense. You’re a young man. You need to relax. Learn to take some joy in your work.’ 

For Jay’s part, he fishes for Kay’s sympathy (‘it hurt!’), and is ‘freaked out’ by what he sees as Laurel’s sexual aggression: ‘slow down, girl, you don’t gotta hit the gas like that!’ It’s interesting that while Jay is Kay’s own replacement, Laurel is therefore a replacement for Jay’s role as new agent, and she and Kay use the same way to interrupt Jay when rambling. 

Jay and Kay’s partnership ends with Kay’s suggestion that ‘maybe you won’t have to (do this job alone)’, and when Kay concludes ‘See you around, Jay’, Jay sadly replies: ‘No, you won’t.’

The second film, as mentioned, is probably the weakest of the bunch. However, interestingly, the heternormativity of the original is almost entirely dismantled (albeit for the worse in terms of MiB’s approach to gender.) 

The first film ended with Kay married to Elizabeth, his long lost love; and Jay as partnered (or possibly more?) with Agent L, but these relationships are described as having ended, with the women never shown onscreen. 

The first film briefly suggested that MiB agents may not have outside relationships, and here the distinction is more clearly established: J repeats the pattern he learned with Kay, and neuralyses all the unhappy agents he’s partnered with, usually suggesting they pursue ‘marri(age), kids’ in order to achieve contentment. He bemoans his own position, alone amongst the other agents as he fails to establish a partnership post Kay’s departure; and that ‘no one remembers him’ (including, of course, Kay) and so ‘no-one loves him.’ The concept of the partnership of agents as a romantic relationship is also played with, with Jay’s ‘dumping’ his partners in restaurants as they threaten to ‘make a scene’. 

The plot contrives to reintroduce Kay and it’s suggest that Kay is comfortable around aliens because of his history with them despite not recognising them as such; which parallels J’s comfort with Laura, despite not knowing that she’s Kay’s daughter. Kay instantly recognises this (‘You’re sweet on her. Why didn’t you say I love you?’) – while Jay, who’s generally adept at reading people’s intentions and feelings, struggles to do so with Kay: ‘You can’t quit on me now, Kay. I just thought we were bonding.’ 

The plot’s interest centres around Jay and Kay rather than Kay’s relationship with Laura, suggesting that Kay’s primary concern is that Jay will make the same mistakes Kay did (become attached to women despite the conflict with work this causes.) Kay compares their situations again at the ending: ‘We’ve all been there. The girl is gone and it hurts. Wanna talk?...I can help.’ 

Jay also compares them, describing himself and his car as ‘new hotness’ and Kay’s as ‘old and busted’, but Kay insists on driving (the metaphor Jay used in previous movies to describe sex), to Jay’s: ‘…Old, busted hotness.’ 

Jay’s interactions with Laura are also echoed in his interactions with Kay (‘you need pie’) and his wishing her goodbye before neuralising her (‘Will I see you around?’ ‘I’ll see you, but you won’t see me’, similar to the first film’s ‘No, you won’t’, and the third’s ‘I’ll see you around, Kay.’) When he admits ‘Laura’s important to me’, and Kay reacts, he quickly adds: ‘to me and you, man, to stuff we do.’   
Kay even urges Jay ‘do not come back for me’ by comparing his ‘mushy’ feelings for Lauranna with Jay’s for him. However, Jay is insistent, and the end concludes with Kay accepting ‘We are who we are. Even if we sometimes forget. Thanks for bringing me back…I did miss (this city.)’ 

The last sequel with the J/K pairing before the 2019 reboot release is Men in Black III. While it’s no high art, it’s an improvement on Men in Black II.

The film is set in real time, with fourteen years having passed since the events of Men in Black. 

Jay and Kay remain partners, however, Kay becomes notably more reserved. Agent Zed passes away off-screen, and Jay teases Kay about his bare-bones, unemotive eulogy dedicated to how unattached he was to Zed. 

Jay, while joking, is clearly making a point, first suggesting Kay ‘hates me’ after Kay demands silence, and then, having amused him, comments: ‘That’s what enjoyment looks like on that face, I like that emotion!’ At Kay’s abrupt: ‘I keep emotion out of it’, Jay retorts: ‘Out of what, Kay? Life?’ before requesting ‘Can you promise me if I go first, you’ll do better than that at my funeral?’ Kay offers his first emotional response with a slight smirk, quipping: ‘I’ll think of something.’ Jay continues to suggest appropriate eulogies for Kay, including ‘Jay was a friend. Now there’s a big part of me that’s gone. Oh, Jay, all the things I should have said, but I was too old and craggy. Too tight. Now I’m just gonna miss your caramel brown skin.’ 

The plot for the film is established, as Jay raises his eyebrows, asking ‘Seriously, something happened…How you live such a happy life?’ Kay responds: ‘I don’t ask questions I don’t want to know the answers to.’ While they discuss this, they attend the restaurant (the set of which looks familiar to the restaurant they spent the evening in on their first meeting) at their ‘regular table’, despite Kay’s protestations that he doesn’t fraternise or socialise with other agents of either gender.   
Jay excuses them to the waiter: ‘He and I are having issues in our relationship right now, but you shouldn’t have to suffer for that,’ and they continue discussing. Kay looks visibly sad and worried, nervously fiddling, and telling Jay not to ‘badmouth his old man’ after Jay mentions how his father abandoned him. At the sign of trouble, Kay pushes Jay down, and Jay returns the concern: ‘You alright?’, disturbed at the anger Kay shows to the alien responsible. 

Afterwards, Kay recollects that with his father, he played a game called ‘Last meal’, and reflects that he could ‘do worse’. Although Jay is unaware, Kay indeed expects this to be his last night, and as such is spending it with Jay. 

However, at Jay’s questioning, Kay puts him down, retreating into professional territory, threatening to ‘report’ Jay for ‘unbecoming’ behaviour, and talking about how his issues are ‘above your pay grade’.   
Jay tries joking (‘let’s get some of that bass out your voice’) and reminding Kay of their partnerships (‘We’re partners, we have the same pay grade), before batting back (‘Maybe my report’s gonna reflect some shit, too, Kay’), before raising the stakes to threatening to quit (perhaps aware of how this will affect Kay – it’s certainly a risk to use as an idle threat, since by definition, MiB and Kay are the only life he has.)   
Kay returns that there are things Jay doesn’t ‘need’ to know, an obvious attempt to shield Jay, although the latter is naturally hurt, bringing up the past with: ‘That’s not the lie you told me when you recruited me.’

Jay speaks to O, the new head of MiB, asking her about their history (‘You two go way back, huh?’) and about what ‘changed’ Kay, but she warns him not to ask questions he doesn’t want the answers to. 

That evening, Kay calls Jay, offering: ‘I guess I owe you some answers, hoss.’ Jay is irritated: ‘What, you’re feeling chatty all of a sudden? Sorry, I can’t talk, I got secret cases of my own I’m working on.’ Kay, however, knows Jay well: ‘I hate to tear you away from your video game.’ Jay threatens to hang up, as Kay maudlinly remarks that the most destructive force in the universe is ‘regret’. At that, Jay replies: ‘You don’t have to wait, just talk.’ 

The main plot then kicks into gear, as Boris the Animal erases Kay from history, causing events to snowball into apocalyptic proportions. Jay is the only one to recall the original timeline, first visiting Kay’s apartment only to find strangers living there, before arriving to MiB to find a new partner, AA, who rhapsodises about their long, personal conversations before smacking his butt. 

Jay assumes MiB have discovered a long-buried sense of humour and are pranking him, but is frustrated at O’s asking ‘What is he to you?’, howling ‘My partner’, and detailing proof of how well he knows Kay: ‘Aqua Velva aftershave. I didn't imagine that. Every stakeout, endless hours of cowboy music. Every morning with his coffee, he'd say: "I tell you something, slick. This coffee tastes like dirt." And I was supposed to say, at this, O joins in as they chant in unison: "What do you expect? It was ground this morning." (It’s kind of hard to ignore the subtext here of Kay sharing the same in-joke with his co-worker/the woman it’s strongly suggested he has romantic feelings for, and Jay.)

O refers him to NYC’s only known time travel operator, who warns him: ‘If you want to save your partner, stay away from him…You must really love this guy to do this.’

With that, Jay travels to 1969, locating a younger Kay and greeting him with an affectionate hug, before recalling ‘I cannot be here with you.’ When Kay threatens to neuralyse him, Jay reveals he’s from the future, and they exit MiB, Kay claiming ‘thought I’d better walk him out’, as Jay pretends to have been confused by neuralysation, mumbling: ‘I put my pants on.’

Jay is surprised to find the past Kay much friendlier, if not a little confused at the sparse information his future self offered: ‘What kind of partners sit all day every day for fourteen years and don’t talk?’ Jay is thrilled at this, agreeing ‘Exactly. And this is the type of problem it causes, dysfunction.’ He smiles to see Kay enjoying his usual cowboy music, and at Kay’s curious: ‘You lose something over here, Honda?’, touches Kay, asking how old he is.

As they arrive to interrogate local aliens in order to track down Boris, Kay refuses to allow Jay to attend, cuffing him to the car, to Jay’s fearful: ‘Kay, don’t go in by yourself!’ Kay doesn’t account for Jay knowing where he keeps his keys, however, and when Jay arrives, they defeat the aliens, and exit to Andy Warhol’s Factory. Jay’s more concerned at the size of MiB 1969 cellular phone technology (‘Don’t put that up to your head!’), the frequency at which Kay calls O (‘Hey, you saw her like an hour ago!’) and that ‘I can’t tell the women from the men, K.’ 

Kay suggests ‘We need pie’ (his usual solution), and Jay orders for him, knowing his regular order. Kay then asks ‘What do you do in your spare time, Stretch? You say we don’t talk. Go ahead, ask me any question, anything you want.’  
Instantly, Jay replies: ‘What’s up with you and O?’  
Kay details how he and O met, returning: ‘What about you, slick? In the future you got yourself a girl?’  
Jay smiles, answering: ‘I got you.’ 

As they exit the diner, Kay promises to return Jay’s weaponry, and Jay jokes: ‘Get some pie in you, you get all mushy.’ Kay quips: ‘I’m just tired of carrying your stuff.’ Meeting Griffin, an alien with the ability to view all potential futures, Kay asks: ‘In the future, do we ever do the texas two step?’ to which Jay nods: ‘Yes, sir.’

However, they fail to capture Boris, who heads to Cape Canaverel. Knowing this is where Kay died in the alternate past O described earlier, Jay begs him not to go to Florida, finally revealing: ‘You die there. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I came back to stop. …I was trying to protect you!’ Kay punches him (‘for lying to me…and for telling me the truth’) as Jay asks Griffin: ‘Can I save him? Is there any future where I save his life?’ Griffin tells him there is, but ‘where there is death, there will always be death.’ 

Kay returns, confident that Jay will ‘make sure’ he survives, and at O’s entrance and loving look towards Kay, Jay interjects: ‘Okay, group hug on the way to what we’re doing.’ Kay asks Jay if in the future, he and O are a couple, as Jay replies: ‘A wise man told me, don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.’ 

At Cape Canavarel, an army colonel stops them, however Griffin shows him the future, and he steps aside. 

Griffin promises Jay ‘Kay will survive. He will not know you were ever here’, but exits, muttering ‘I can never bear to watch this part.’ 

Jay tells Kay that should the plan to repair the timeline succeed, ‘I’m not gonna have a chance to say a proper goodbye.’ Kay shakes his hand, telling him ‘See why I recruited you. You’re good, man. Good man.’ Jay is surprised to the point of near tears, while laughing in surprise: ‘What the hell happened to you?’ Kay returns: ‘Told you, it hasn’t happened yet.’

Boris combines forces with his own future self, attacking Kay, at which Jay flips out: ‘That’s my partner. That’s my partner!’ Jay rescues Kay, hiding from him in order to protect the timeline as he mutters ‘I see you around, Kay.’ 

However, from his vantage point, he witnesses the young army colonel save Kay, sacrificing himself. At this point, the colonel’s young son arrives, asking where his father is. At this, Kay’s voice breaks, as he asks the child his name. The child replies: ‘James’, and Kay, unable to tell him the truth, neuralyses him, telling him the ‘only thing you ever need to know. Your daddy is a hero.’

Jay realises that the boy was himself, and the colonel his father. 

Returning to the future, he finds a more cheerful Kay, humming to a song, and asks him what he ‘knows’. Kay is characteristically unhelpful: ‘How do I know what I don’t know?’ Jay asks him if they went to the Chinese restaurant and spoke on the phone on the preceding night, as Kay agrees: ‘You hung up on me.’  
Jay shows his father’s watch, given to him as a child, as he agrees: ‘…I’ve realised, last night was a long, long time ago. And really, I just want to say thank you.’  
Kay says, sincerely: ‘It’s been my privilege,’ to which Jay looks touched, and the film ends as they bicker about sex between MiB agents (‘I bet I know what down with you and O’/’There’s no fraternising between agents.’ ‘I think y’all might have fraternised a time or two.’) 

**Links**   
[Non-A03 fic](http://therealandroidsdungeon.blogspot.co.uk/p/c.html?zx=2a3b695dc57c60c3)   
[Non-A03 fics](http://movieslash.allmyfault.org/movies_MN.htm)   
[Ship tag](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Agent%20Jay*s*Agent%20Kay%20\(Men%20in%20Black\)/works)   
[Tumblr tag](http://merry-melody.tumblr.com/tagged/men-in-black)


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